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A DISCOUESE 



COMMEMORATIVE OF 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 



Rev. Ralph Randolph Gurley, 



BY 



MASON NOBLE, D. D 

i / 

Pastor of Sixth Presbyterian Church. 



1/ 



Ipubiisljeo at % wqaest of % g^nuritan Colonisation ffojcwig. 



WASHINGTON CITY: 

M'OILL & WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS 
1872. 



c t> 



DISCOURSE 



"I am distressed for thee, rny brother . . . : very pleasant hast thou 
been unto me." — II Samuel, 1 : 26. 

The distress of David at the death of Jonathan, his faithful 
friend and brother, was very deep and overwhelming. The 
love which the noble young prince had manifested for him, 
a love unselfish, strong, and unchanging in the most trying 
circumstances — a love which had separated him from his 
royal father, placed an insuperable obstacle between him and 
the throne of the kingdom, and finally led him to give up 
life itself on the disastrous battle-field of G-ilboa — all this love 
passes vividly before him, and fills with its presence his whole 
being. 

The future, just opening before him — its vacant throne, its 
promises of power and glory, its ambitions and its bloody 
strifes — is forgotten in the sad present, and in the pleasant 
memories of his friend — "Yery pleasant hast thou been unto 
me, my brother: thy love to me was wonderful." Over all 
their past relations does the light of this love shine, imparting 
new sweetness to their past companionship, and a strange 
mystery to the event which he now deplores. 

I am sure that I express the sentiment of all your hearts, 
when I say that our distress at our bereavement to-day is 
mingled with most pleasant memories of the beloved brother 
who has been taken from us. 

Rev. Ealph Randolph Gurley was a man of very rare quali- 
ties, both of mind and heart, and his life, protracted through 
so many years, has been full of scenes of the profoundest 
interest to himself and the world. 

He was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on the 26th of May, 
1797. His father, the Rev. John Gurley, was the first pastor 



of the Congregational Church in Lebanon. His mother was 
Mary Porter, a sister of the late Bev. Dr. David Porter, of 
Catskill, New York. There were five sons and two daughters 
in the family — our brother being the fifth child, and surviving 
all his brothers and sisters. He was graduated at Yale College 
in 1818, and soon after became a resident of this city. In 
1822 he received his appointment as Agent of the American 
Colonization Society, and from that time to the present, a 
period of fifty years, his life has known no other first and all- 
absorbing object. For the last few years his connection with 
the Society has been only nominal, on account of his physical 
prostration. But he retained to the last his interest in all its 
proceedings, never yielding his conviction that the young 
Eepublic of Liberia was destined to become a mighty state, a 
great centre of civilization and of Christianity for Africa, and 
fraught with the highest blessings to her exiled children in 
America. Whatever be the final issue in the coming centu- 
ries, his name will not be forgotten by the friends of the Afri- 
can race, or by those who can appreciate private worth or 
public usefulness. 

I have known him well for forty years. I first met him in 
the Fourth Presbyterian Church of this city, in the spring of 
1832, on the day on which I commenced my ministry among 
that people. From that time to the present, I have been on 
the most intimate terms with him as a friend and brother. 
For several years I sustained toward him and his family the 
sacred relation of christian pastor, and our intercourse has 
ever been most unreserved. I have, of course, known him as 
thoroughly as it is permitted us to know the upright in heart; 
and in looking back to-day over the scenes of his busy life, the 
first and deepest impression with such a review makes upon 
me is — 

1. His love of his fellow-men. 

There are times, I trust, when we all forget ourselves in the 
interest which we feel in the good or evil fortune of others. 
But with him it was a constant experience: I have sometimes 
thought it was his ruling passion, so quick was he to see the 
wants of othors, and so prompt and skillful in bringing relief. 



Among many deeds of kindness, with, which his. life was* 
filled, I remember one described to me during the' first year of 
my residence in Washington, by a gentleman who was familiar 
with the facts. A poor widow, whose husband had been dead 
only a few days, was lying ill in a wretched hovel. Her only 
child was also sick, and they were both destitute of the com- 
mon comforts of life; there was no food and no fire. He heard 
of the distress, and went in person to miuister. His quick eye 
saw, and his large heart took in, the whole state of things. 
He made a fire, he brought food, he boiled the teakettle, and made 
a cup of tea, and thus efficiently relieved the necessities of the 
suffering. 

As I knew more of him, I learned that this was only an 
illustration of his mode of doing good. He was sure to find 
out suffering, and to attempt to relieve it. During these many 
years that have since passed, he has gone in and out among 
the homes of the poor, found suffering where others did not 
know of its existence, and parted with the last shilling in his 
own limited purse, that he might comfort others. 

It is well known, to all familiar with his ways, that he not 
unfrequently embarrassed himself by his great generosity to 
the suffering poor: this was specially the case in his tender 
sympathy for the colored people. 

In the second or third year of my residence here, I was sur- 
prised to learn that his library and furniture were to be sold at 
public auction, and his pleasant home to be exchanged for a 
boarding-house. On inquiry, I ascertained that a colored 
family were about to be sold and separated from each other 
in perpetual bondage in the distant South. To save them from 
their sad fate, he became personally responsible for the money 
necessary to redeem them. When the time of meeting his 
obligations arrived, there was no other way to secure his 
object but the sacrifice of his home, and of those literary treas- 
ures which were dearer to him than gold. I was present at 
the sale, and saw his books, which were principally the choicest 
editions of the ancient and the English classics, and arranged 
in a book-case, which his own exquisite taste had invented, all 
knocked down to the highest bidder. But great as was the 
sacrifice, it did not prove sufficient for his relief, and he lived 



for several years meekly and uncomplainingly under the 
burden. 

His whole life was, in fact, one of obedience to the divine 
law: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of 
Christ." He came nearer than any man I ever knew to the 
example of Christ, washing the feet of unworthy and worthy 
men, not passing by the traitor Judas, and by gentleness over- 
coming the resistance of the warm-hearted and impulsive 
Peter. He was worthy to stand by the side of Abon Ben 
Adhem, described in eastern fable, who 

"Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw within the moonlight of his room — 
Making it rich like a lily in bloom — 
An angel writing in a book of gold ! 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the presence in the room he said: 
'What writest thou?' The vision raised his head, 
And in a voice, made all of sweet accord, 
Answered : ' The names of those who love the Lord.' 
And is mine one? said Adhem, ' Nay; not so,' 
Replied the angel. Adhem spake more low, 
But cheerly still, I pray thee, then, 
Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.' 
The angel rose and vanished. The next night 
He came again, with a great wakening light, 
And showed the names that love of God had blest ; 
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest." 

Now, our brother loved God with a most reverent, deep, and 
all-controlling love. It was the supreme joy r of his life. He 
prized being enrolled among those who loved the Lord, as the 
very highest attainment which a man could make. And 
in his sense of deficiency in this respect, and from his spirit of 
consecration to Him who said, u One is your master, even 
Christ, and all ye are brethren," he turned with an humble 
and loving heart to his fellow-men. The divine in man seemed 
ever before him. All the lowly were to him the sons of God. 
The oppressed race were "colored men." His enemies even 
were mistaken and "imperfect" friends. He ever recognize 1 
the brotherhood of the race, and felt that they were all children 
of the same Heavenly Father. He was a Christian through 
and through: "in all things shewing himself a pattern of good 



works; in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 
so that he that was of the contrary part was ashamed, having 
no evil thing to say of him." His truth, his goodness, his 
humility, his want of self-assertion, his gentleness, his patience 
with unreasonable men, his submission to God in the midst of 
disappointed hopes and deranged plans of life, and under the 
bereavements which desolated his home and the personal sick- 
ness which made him a helpless invalid for so many years, 
and above all his constant trust in the sacrificial work of a 
divine Saviour for the pardon of his sins — all proved him to be 
a living Christian — and yet the more thoroughly you knew 
him the deeper was the impression that his constant prayer 

was — 

" Write me as one who loves his fellow-men ! " 

Another very pleasant memory of our brother is — 

2. His high intellectual culture. 

I am not informed in relation to the early training which 
laid the foundation of his tastes and habits as a scholar. I 
only know that as a literary man he stood among the first in 
his class during the last year of his college life. Said the Eev. 
O. Eastman, one of the venerable Secretaries of tho American 
Tract Society, in a letter to me about a year since: "I have 
known Mr. Gurley since September, 1817, more than fifty-three 
years. He was a senior when I was a freshman in Tale 
College. When my class was admitted into the Brother's 
Society, he made an address from the President's chair. I 
have ever since entertained a high respect for him." 

His position among men of culture was never lost. His con- 
nection with a great National Society would prevent him 
from pursuing steadily the study of the ancient classics, 
or investigating thoroughly the great questions of natural 
science, or becoming a leader in the discussion of abstruse 
metaphysics. But he followed these studies and discussions 
with interest, and was abreast of the times in their controlling 
thoughts and opinions. In his theology, he was in sympathy 
with those who entertained the grandest conceptions of the 
love of God in the Gospel of His Son: believing that "light 
and not darkness, love and not necessity, are at the innermost 



heart of all," his culture as a Christian theologian began, if it 
did not end, in the recognition of this wonderful and blessed 
truth. 

But there was one field of learning which had irresistible 
charms for him, and in this he gathered much "gold and silver 
and precious stones." No one could hear him talk or preach, 
or read his books, or listen to his fervid and eloquent appeals 
in behalf of the Colonization cause, without feeling that the 
spirit of the old English classics had breathed its inspiration 
upon all his powers. His library was filled with books of this 
class. Behind the green curtains, which hung on bright rings 
and in graceful folds before his elegant book-case, were seen 
"peeping out" his choicest volumes of Lord Bacon, and Milton, 
and Shakspeare, and Akenside, and South, and Barrow, and 
Bishop Butler, and Jeremy Taylor, and Tiliotson, and Bobert 
Boyle on Seraphic Love, and the "judicious" Fuller, arid many 
others. These were, I think, his favorites and his daily com- 
panions. There was in the peculiar structure of his own mind 
an uncommon adaptation to those old masters of elevated and 
beautiful thought. He read and -pondered them with the keen- 
est relish, and their ideas and tastes became a part of his own 
being, so that, without consciousness and without plagiarism, 
he both spoke and wrote in their lofty style of pure old Eng- 
lish eloquence. Were this the proper time and place, I could 
verify this remark by quotations from his "Life of Ashmun," 
his correspondence with Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, of England, 
and even from his Annual Keports of the American Coloniza- 
tion Society, which were always regarded as an intellectual 
treat by his friends in Washington and throughout the country. 

When he reached the maturity of his strength, some twenty 
years ago, his mind had become very rich and fruitful. His 
perception of truth in its more delicate relations was very 
vivid, and when he stood before men and reasoned with them, 
his argument was always strong with the logic of facts, while 
over all his discourse his brilliant imagination and pure taste 
cast their most attractive and charming influence. 

He was, in fact, a poet in the highest sense; not only writing 
beautiful verses in exquisite numbers, but living in closest sym- 
patic with all nature, material and spiritual, enjoying a clear 



insight into many of her mysteries, and a true appreciation of 
i er rich and manifold instruction. 

I have said that his mind was fruitful. He was, indeed, ever 
at work and accomplishing results. There are three volumes 
from his pen known and highly appreciated by his friends, 
and which will establish his reputation as one of our first Amer- 
ican writers. They are "The Life of Ashmun," "Gurley's Mis- 
sion to England," and "The Life and Eloquence of Earned. " 
The first is the most elaborate, being a large octavo volume of 
over five hundred pages. It was written, as I remember well, 
in the midst of the most pressing duties, he giving to its pre- 
paration the small hours of the night after the labors of his 
office were ended. 

His "Mission to England" is the history of his endeavors to 
bring the leading philanthropists of England into an earnest 
sympathy and co-operation, with the American Colonization 
Society. 

His "Life and Eloquence of Earned" is a worthy tribute 
to one of the most eloquent young divines that ever filled an 
American pulpit, and who finally laid down his life in the 
midst of the pestilence at New Orleans, as a willing sacrifice 
to duty to the Presbyterian church of which he was the first 
pastor. 

In addition to these published volumes, he maintained a con- 
stant and extensive correspondence with every part of our 
country and with Liberia. He had also the entire editorial 
responsibility of the monthly publication of the African 
Eepository, as well as the preparation of the Annual Eeports 
of the American Colonization Society. 

If all his writings could be collected, they would make many 
large volumes, full of noble Christian thoughts of the rights of 
man and of the duty of governments to break every yoke, and 
lift up the oppressed of all nations. 

But while the memory of his rich and fruitful intellect is so 
pleasant to his friends, we cannot forget — 

3. His faithfulness, self-denial, and power as a preacher 
of the Gospel. 

Though he was never ordained or installed over any par- 
ticular church as pastor, yet his connection with the churches 



10 

of our Presbytery was of the most intimate character, and his 
services in our pulpits were most eagerly sought and delighted 
in. Indeed, he was not more universally beloved as a man 
than prized as a preacher of Christ. All denominations were 
attracted towards him, so that his Sabbaths were as full of 
service as if he were a pastor. In the colored churches, at the 
poor-house, at the jail, and in the penitentiary, he greatly mag- 
nified his office; while the amount of labor he performed, with- 
out f ee or reward, in supplying the pulpits of sick or absent 
pastors, and in attending funerals among the poor, laid all our 
churches under the very highest obligations to him and his 
family. Such incessant labors, added as they were to the ex- 
hausting duties of his office, were of course a constant inter- 
ference with his physical as well as mental comfort. But 
personal fatigue, ordinary sickness, deprivation of his literary 
reading, and of the society of his family and friends, were all 
forgotten when he was asked to speak for Christ, and lead the 
devotions of His people. Ordinarily his sermons were a very 
simple and loving exhibition of some common truth. The 
precept or the promise, the doctrine or the warning, which 
for the time he held up before his hearers, came to them all 
glowing with the love to GJ-od and man which burned in his 
own heart. Sometimes, on ordinary occasions even, he rose 
to the sublimest heights of pulpit eloquence; and while his 
soul seemed to be all on fire with the thoughts within him, 
his manner was most gentle and sweet and winning and over- 
powering. Those of the present generation who have known 
Mr. G-urley only in the comparative feebleness of the last fifteen 
years, have no true or worthy conception of his power in the 
pulpit. I wish I could give you a living picture of him as he 
sometimes stood before men in the name of Christ and of 
suffering humanity — for the two were always united in his 
mind. 

In his person he was, in the vigor of his manhood, remark- 
ably handsome; like David, "he was ruddy, and withal of a 
beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to." When he arose 
and announced his text, your sympathy was instantly excited, 
but more at first for himself than for the truth which he ut- 
tered, lie was timid, hesitating, and embarrassed; his voice 



11 

was low and tremulous with emotion, and his look uncertain, 
if not deprecatory. As he proceeded in his simple, though 
embarrassed way, he soon forgot himself and others, in the 
clear vision of his subject as it opened before him. He would 
then unconsciously lift up his tall person to his full height, 
stand straight and firm upon his feet, twine his fingers in his 
long black hair, and throw it away from his noble white 
forehead, and, in gestures expressing his emotions, and in 
words of purest English formed into sentences of the rarest 
harmony and force, he would turn your fears for him into ad- 
miration of the man, and finally into forgetfulness of every- 
thing but the truth which inspired him. On such occasions, 
as was said of a great poet, his features were "like a beautiful 
alabaster vase, seen to perfection only when lighted up from 
within," and the words of his lips penetrated your inmost 
being. 

His sermons were never written. He did not carry even a 
brief or a skeleton into the pulpit to guide his thoughts. He 
said that he was embarrassed rather than aided by such 
helps. His thoughts, however, were the fruit of much pre- 
vious study, and his language was as choice and appropriate 
in his extemporaneous address as when he held his pen in the 
quiet of his study. If he had devoted himself exclusively to 
pulpit oratory, I have sometimes thought he would have 
united in himself the dazzling eloquence of our American 
Larned, with the clear and finished reasoning of Henry Mel- 
vill, of London, of whose preaching he was accustomed to 
speak with much enthusiasm. As it is, the memory of his 
power as a preacher will ever be pleasant to his friends. 

But it is his character, as connected with the attempted 
elevation of the colored race, that will ever claim our special 
admiration. I would, therefore, invite your attention to 

4. His consecration to his life-work as Secretary of the 
American Colonization Society. 

He was called into the service of the Society in the enthusi- 
asm of his youth, and devoted to its interests his best powers 
for a long and busy life. 

The sublime object of the Society was, in Mr. G-urley's own 



12 

words, "to restore a degraded people, long exiled from their 
mother country, to their own distant and barbarous shore, and 
there elevate them to a national existence, informed and dig- 
nified with the spirit of law, literature, liberty, and Christianity, 
that by their example and achievements the light of a new 
day might dawn upon Africa, and the day-star arise in their 
hearts." 

This was the beautiful ideal which ever kindled his imagina- 
tion, and called forth all the natural and generous benevolence 
of his heart. 

His first work was in Washington. Here in his office there 
was more than enough to engage all his powers. There was 
daily correspondence with the patrons of the Society, planning 
expeditions of colonists, and preparing and superintending 
their outfits, regulating the affairs of the infant colony, editing 
the Keposjtory, and writing for the press generally to defend 
the Colonization cause. To use again his own language, "they 
commenced their enterprise without resources, unsustained by 
general opinion, and opposed by forces arrayed on opposite 
grounds and in different and opposite sections of the country." 
This state of things demanded not only the constant use of the 
public press, but his personal presence in every part of the 
land. In obedience to this summons, he frequently left the 
quiet of his home, and visited the principal cities both North 
and South; occupying pulpits on the Sabbath and public halls 
during the week, encouraging friends and convincing enemies 
of the scheme. He was found sometimes holding private in- 
terviews with gentlemen on their great plantations in the 
South, and with Christian merchants in their counting-rooms 
in the North. At other times he was meeting opponents in 
public debate, and the clash of arms was sometimes very loud 
and stirring, as he fought the good fight in Boston and in Cin- 
cinnati, and in other cities of the East and West. 

But he did not confine his personal labors to his own coun- 
try. He made several voyages across the Atlantic — thrice to 
Africa and once to Europe. His first visit to Africa was in the 
early history of the colony, during the life of the Colonial 
Agent, Ashmun, when the affairs of the colony were in almost 
hopeless entanglement, and the whole enterprise in danger of 



13 

•irretrievable disaster. That visit and its benefits to Liberia 
will ever be one of the brightest chapters in the history of her 
early struggles for. existence, and an illustration and proof of 
his fidelity and wisdom as a mediator among men. It is not 
too much to say that, by his love and patience and energy 
the character of Mr. Ashmun was fully vindicated before the 
world, the relations between him and the colonists restored to 
more than their original harmony, and the colony itself brought 
into a state of stable and permanent prosperity. 

According to Dr. Tracy's Historical Discourse, Mr. G-urley 
also at this time had the responsibility of originating the 
plan of government for Liberia. He says: "It is enough 
for his glory that he alone among white men saw the safety 
of trusting a negro people with some part in the management 
of their own concerns; and that by boldly acting on his belief, 
he placed his name on the not long list of legislators whose 
wisdom organized States on principles that secured peace, 
permanency, coherence, and a healthy growth." 

Mr Gurley's second visit to Liberia was in 1849, under in- 
structions from the United States G-overnment. On his return 
he made a report on the condition and prospects of that Kepub- 
lic, which was printed by order of Congress, and was warmly 
commended by Henry Clay and others. 

His third visit was of comparatively recent date, being one 
of the last great efforts of his active life. After the many 
struggles, discouragements, and disasters through which the 
Society and the colony had passed, it was his privilege to 
stand once more on those distant shores, and look upon the 
young u Republic of Liberia," her independence acknowledged 
by the leading Christian Governments of the world, her peo- 
ple enjoying all the rights of freemen, and her future as cer- 
tain as Christian churches, and free schools, and a college, and 
a prosperous community could make it. 

His visit to Great Britain is fresh in the memory of many of 
his friends. Its object was to confer with the leading philan- 
thropists of England, and enlist them, if possible, in the great 
work of colonizing Africa. Though he failed in securing that 
object, he performed a very important work. In a written 
"testimonial," signed by forty gentlemen in London, and pre- 



14 

sented to him a few days before he sailed for home, it is said : 
" Where some men would have abandoned the undertaking in 
despair, or risked its future success by the indiscretions of a 
hasty zeal, he pursued his objects with a calm and patient per- 
severance, that won the personal esteem even of many who 
continued adverse to the principles of the Colonization Society. 
During the period of his residence in England, he has been as- 
siduously occupied in diffusing information through all accessi- 
ble channels of publicity. And it may be confidently asserted, 
that while his statements deeply interested all who were for- 
tunate enough to have the advantage of hearing them, they 
brought conviction to the minds of some who had previously 
been either doubtful or opposed." 

This testimonial brings into a clear light the characteristics 
of Mr. GJ-urley's mode of working, as well as its spirit. His zeal 
knew no abatement, and his temper lost nothing of its sweet- 
ness in the midst of the most decided and even violent oppo- 
sition. 

In relation to the financial success of the Society, it is well 
known that Mr. Gurley felt that money was the very " sinews 
of war," in the great struggle to establish and maintain a 
flourishing colony in Africa; and the success of the Society 
in this respect was promising. When he first became its 
Agent, in 1822, its income for that year was only $778. 
From that time it increased regularly for the next ten years, 
asfollows: $5,000, $10,000, $14,000, $19,000, $26,000, $28,000, 
up to $40,000. Still there was, in his judgment, something 
far better than this to be continually aimed at and secured. 
He would fill the public mind with great and worthy ideas 
of the ultimate object which the Society had in view, both 
for this country and Africa. True and enlarged views, in 
his opinion, would not only secure all the material aid neces- 
sary, but finally unite all good men, and so enlist the nation, 
North and South, in the work, that it would become a magnifi- 
cent Government enterprise. In that faith he lived and 
labored; hence his comparative indifference to mere finance. 
Mr. G-urley was looking at public opinion, and its power over 
the greatest and the gravest questions connected with the Af- 
rican race. He believed in the mighty influence of good men, 



15 

and was ever pressing upon them his sacred cause — pleading 
with statesmen, clergymen, merchants, editors, and educators 
of the people. 

The simple fact was, that his entire active life was devoted 
to this work. He thought and planned and toiled ; he wrote 
and spoke and reasoned and prayed and suffered for the eleva- 
tion of the negro race. In proportion as he loved bis fellow- 
men, he hated the oppressions of slavery. Though called a 
pro-slavery man by his enemies, he spoke of it boldly in these 
burning words: "Its perpetuity is irreconcilable with the 
nature of our institutions, the spirit of the age, and the order 
of Providence. It stands in the temple of our freedom, like the 
image of death at the Egyptian festivities, to sadden our 
thoughts, to cloud the light, and tune to melancholy the in- 
struments of joy." "Let him who inculcates the dogma, that 
the liberty of one portion of mankind must be perpetually 
dependent for existence on the slavery of another, expect few 
disciples in this land, until the signatures which the Genius of 
Liberty has carved in our mountains be forever erased, and her 
glorious banner, now waving over us, be taken down forever. 
Let him ask for proselytes among the Arabs of the desert, or 
the awe-struck minions of despotic power, but expect not his 
doctrineto prevail among a people who have already taught 
wisdom to kings, and thundered forth the truth that makes the 
spirit of man free in the ears of an astonished world." 

His books, his speeches, his editorials in the Eepository, 
his Annual Eeports, and his correspondence with Henry Clay 
and with Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, of England, are full of 
these generous outbursts in behalf of universal freedom. Yet 
he held so firmly to the old ideas that the States themselves 
must eventually proclaim liberty throughout the lan'd, or that 
the providence of God would in some other way, unknown and 
unanticipated by us, bring to an end the great oppression, that 
he was unmoved by all the misrepresentations of himself and 
of Colonization on the part of those who considered themselves 
the exclusive friends of the colored race. Without impugning 
their motives, he felt that they were mistaken in their mode 
of working. Such men as Gerrit Smith and William Lloyd 
Garrison, and the class they represent, he honored as bold 



16 

and disinterested men — men who were ready to risk their 
reputation and their life in a most unpopular cause, and from 
most philanthropic motives. But he had no confidence in their 
wisdom; neither did he share in the opinion of some, that to 
them was to be attributed the grand result of universal eman- 
cipation when it came. 

And in vindication of his just fame, and in the home of his 
earnest and loving labors for the last fifty years, I desire to 
say, that it was the view which Mr. Gurley entertained of 
slavery and of the national compact, and of the wonder-work- 
ing providence of God, that finally pervaded and controlled 
the American mind. In the Church, among her ministers, 
and throughout all classes of the people, in the free States, 
there- was a most intense aversion to slavery, mingled with 
the deepest love of the nation, and a longing for deliverance 
from a national humiliation and a grievous wrong; and yet 
they did not see how the good of the oppressed could be se- 
cured by national violence. 

What, then, did secure the final result? It was the volun- 
tary withdrawal of States from the authority and privileges 
of the national compact, and their armed resistance to its 
claims. What Mr. Garrison and his friends did in theory to 
destroy slavery, the seceding States did in fact to "conserve" 
it. In thus separating themselves violently from the nation, 
they surrendered the rights which had been secured to them 
by the national compact. Then came the great uprising of 
the people to preserve the nation's life, and in that struggle 
the conflict between the claims of the negro and the life of the 
nation ceased forever. They had become, in the providence 
of God, one and the same. The hands on the great clock of 
time had suddenly gone forward, and the hour of emancipa- 
tion struck so loud and clear, that the good, the pure, the 
strong, the patriotic, the conscientious, the conservative, heard 
it, and rose up as at the voice of God himself. In the Church, 
Dr. Skinner and Dr. Spring; Dr. Tyng and Dr. Vinton; Bishop 
Janes and Dr. Williams, and the hundreds of thousands they 
represented in the ministry and membership of the leading 
evangelical denominations; in the State, President Lincoln 
and General Dix and General Grant, who had always strug- 



17 

gled to uphold the national compact, and were now conse- 
crated to the same ideas, as expressed in the immortal letter 
of Mr. Lincoln on the relations of slavery to the Union ; and 
the millions of people, whose opinions had been as conserva- 
tive as theirs, all now rallied around the banner of universal 
freedom, and bore it on high and onward to victory. And in 
the front rank of all stood Ralph Randolph Gurley. Inti- 
mately associated as he had ever been with some of the best 
and strongest of those who now trampled on the dear old flag, 
he did not hesitate a moment. I can never forget how his 
eyes sparkled with new hope for the afflicted children of Africa, 
as we talked together of that providence of God by which an 
evil that had seemed to defy all human remedies had at last 
vanished like a dream, and left the whole land lighted up with 
the brightness of universal freedom. 

In the splendor of such a result, which the love and teach- 
ings and labors of his life had done so much to produce, we 
leave him; for it is a splendor which shall never die. 

In the concluding words of his own "Life of Ashmun," I 
would say, changing only a word or two, to adapt it more per- 
fectly to our brother and the present time — 

"Thou hast not lived, thou hast not labored in vain. I hear 
responded from ten thousand tongues, thou hast not lived, thou 
hast not labored in vain. The light thou hast kindled in Africa 
shall never go out. The principles thou hast exemplified are 
true and everlasting. Thy country is doing justice; for now, 
in all her borders, no fetter is worn by the guiltless; and when 
upon Africa thy country shall have conferred, in the free spirit 
of the Great Master of Christians, her language, her liberty, 
and her religion, and the honors of all nations shall be cluster- 
ing thick upon her, Africa, America, the world, shall know 
thou hast not lived, thou hast not labored in vain." 

Though I fear that I may have wearied your patience 
already, yet I cannot conclude without reminding you how 
very pleasant to his friends is — 

5. The memory of his truly Christian home. 

His home is a place almost too sacred for us to enter, and 
yet I cannot forbear saying to you who loved him, that it was 



18 

such a home as the character of such a man, united to the 
loveliest of Christian women, could create. The ministries of 
Christian affection were never more beautifully exemplified in 
husband and wife and in parents and children. In that circle 
you felt encompassed by an atmosphere of love, where mutual 
esteem and kindness and gentleness and forbearance and dis- 
interestedness reigned supreme. It was not a family affection, 
selfish and exclusive, mixed up with family pride and envy of 
others. Their united love was a full and overflowing spring 
of living water, pouring itself forth most lavishly on every 
side, especially on the poor and the suffering, so that they 
seemed absolutely to forget their own sorrows in their sym- 
pathy for others. Lovely and pleasant were our brother and 
sister in their lives, and in their death they were scarcely 
divided. 

I had the mournful pleasure of ministering to them both, as 
they went down gradually and gently, to the last hour. Mrs. 
G-urley preceded her husband some three months, trusting 
only in the righteousness of Christ, and yielding herself up, 
calmly and without murmuring, to the holy will of God. Mr. 
G-urley, though in great bodily and mental feebleness, yet 
comprehended the whole situation. The promises of the 
Gospel and the prayers offered by his bedside seemed to be 
most intelligently enjoyed by him to the very last. 

On the 30th of July last he fell asleep in Jesus, and awoke, 
we need not doubt, in the midst of that more perfect home 
which our Saviour has prepared for those that love Him. 
Before this he has met again his glorified wife and the eleven 
children who preceded them to glory. 

I am glad for thee, my brother, and very pleasant is the 
prospect of meeting thee above. Amen. 



19 

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE "LIFE OF ASHMUN. 

BY GEOEGE HILL. 

Thy task is o'er, a monument thou here 

Hast built, wherein the memory of him, 
Whose tribute rightly were a nation's tear, 

Shall, like a star no earth-born vapors dim, 
Survive, embalmed like relics in perfumes, 
Or regal dust in Cyclopean tombs. 
I met thee in life's early day, and still 

Have watched thy course — too long, through years gone by, 
Stealing unheard, yet, as the Alpine rill 

Swells to the torrent, destined to a high 
And loud celebrity, the glorious crown 

He wins, who strives truth, virtue, to promote; 
And long shall Afric in her heart enthrone 

Thy worth, thy words long treasure in her thought. 



MINUTE OF WASHINGTON CITY PRESBYTERY. 

The following minute was adopted by the Washington City- 
Presbytery, at its meeting October 8, 1872, viz: 

"The Presbytery would record on their minutes the fact, 
that since their last stated meeting, and on the 30th of July, 
1872, their brother, Ealph Eandolph GtTtrley, departed this 
life, in the full faith and comfort of the G-ospel. Mr. Gurley 
was a licentiate of the Baltimore Presbytery, and was trans- 
ferred to the Presbytery of the District of Columbia, when it 
was originally constituted in 1823 — forty-nine years ago. In 
the many years which have since passed, he had seen all the 
original members of that Presbytery finish their labors on 
earth, and enter upon their heavenly reward. 

"Though never ordained or installed as pastor over any 
particular church, yet his connection with the churches of the 
Presbytery was of the most intimate character; and his ser- 
vices in the pulpit were most eagerly sought and greatly de- 
lighted in by Christians of all the evangelical denominations. 
Before the failure of his strength, his labors were very abund- 
ant also among the poor of Washington — preaching with great 



20 

zeal and acceptance in the colored churches, at the Poor-house, 
and in the Jail and Penitentiary. He visited the sick, the poor, 
and frequently officiated at the funerals of those who were 
destitute of a pastor. By such labors, and the great gentle- 
ness and pure benevolence of his character, he endeared him- 
self to all classes, and his memory is very fragrant to thousands 
who have witnessed, if they have not shared in, his ministries 
of love. 

"Presbytery would also bear witness to the wisdom, fidelity, 
and unwavering resolution with which, for more than half a 
century, Mr. G-urley devoted his great powers to the eleva- 
tion of the colored race. The American Colonization Society, 
with whose plans and labors he was so long and intimately 
identified, and the flourishing Kepublic of Liberia, whose con- 
stitution of Government he originally drafted, and whose pro- 
gress has been watched over and promoted so successfully by 
his self-denying and untiring toil, are his enduring monument. 
Though prostrated by severe illness for many years past, he 
still retained his connection with the American Colonization 
Society as Honorary Secretary. His faith in the great scheme 
of African Colonization and in the glorious future of Liberia 
never failed. In all the years of his physical prostration, as 
in the sad bereavements experienced in his family circle, (his 
wife and eleven children having preceded him to the grave,) 
his Christian character shone out in great beauty. Submis- 
sive gentleness, unchanging patience, accompanied by a firm 
reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, as his only hope for pardon 
and eternal life, made his sick-room a pleasant resort for his 
Christian friends, and his death only an entrance into the 
everlasting kingdom. 

u We sympathize very deeply with the members of his be- 
reaved family who still survive, and feel that we share largely 
in the honor which such a life and character have conferred 
on them and on the Presbyterian Church. 'Blessed are the 
dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: yea,- saith the 
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works 
do follow them.' " 

A true copy : T. B. MoFalls, 

Stated Clerk. 



OBITUARY OF MRS. GURLEY. 



Died in Washington City, April 27th, 1872, Mrs. Eliza 
McLellan Gurley, the wife of Eev. R. E. G-urley, in the six- 
tieth year of her age. 

Mrs. Gurley came to Washington as a bride nearly forty-five 
years since, and has thus been a resident among us for almost 
half a century. In passing from us to the grave, she leaves a 
large circle of deeply-attached friends, who are reconciled to 
their loss only by the reflection that she has laid down the 
burden of life here to enter into the perfect rest of heaven. 

Her character was one of rare excellence. To remarkable 
beauty of person she united such sweetness of disposition and 
refinement and grace of manners, that all were attracted to 
her. Her mind was as bright with intelligence as her heart 
was full of pure affection. In the relations of wife and mother, 
she was the idol of her husband and the unfailing source of 
happiness to her children. Of her numerous children, only 
two survive her: the rest, some in very tender years, and 
some in the maturity of their powers, having preceded her to 
the tomb. But, in all these circumstances of sorrow, her gen- 
tle submission and uncomplaining patience proved her confi- 
dence in the wisdom and goodness of that Father who directs 
all our affairs. Her own experience of sorrow did not lead 
her to gloom and forgetfulness of the grief of others. It, on 
the contrary, seemed to lead her out of her own home circle 
into the tenderest sympathy with other desolated homes. 
Hence she was found so often in the abodes of poverty, and in 
the midst of sickness and of death, out of her own compara- 
tively slender purse supplying the immediate wants of the 
suffering, and ministering to them with her loving presence 
and kind words of sympathy and encouragement. The bless- 
ing of him who was ready to perish came upon her, and she 






22 

caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. "She was a mother 
to the poor, and the cause that she knew not she searched out." 

There was a brief period of life when great physical pros- 
tration, united with a native distrust and depreciation of her- 
self, led her to doubt the genuineness of her own Christian 
character, and she walked in the midst of darkness and de- 
spair. It seemed for a time, indeed, as if her reason would be 
overwhelmed by the mighty waves that rolled over her. But 
careful and skillful nursing gradually restored her health, and 
a clearer apprehension of the infinite grace of God in the Gos- 
pel of His Son led her to a cheerful hope of Divine favor and 
that sweet and abiding peace which has so characterized the 
past ten or fifteen years of her life. To her most intimate 
friends how much like the Saviour Himself has she seemed to 
be! What gentleness in her ways! How charitable in her 
judgment of others! How thoughtful of the wants and con- 
venience of those who ministered to her! How self- forgetful 
in her plans — showing that she was in deep sympathy with 
Him who said, "I came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister." 

The last weeks of her life only brought into clearer view 
these Christian-like traits of character. The promises of the 
Gospel were taken into her heart more confidingly than ever, 
and the sting of death was taken entirely awa}\ When not 
able to speak, except in a low whisper, and her eyes were 
closed upon all earthly objects, her ears were still open to 
every voice that spoke to her, and her mind grasped every 
thought that was uttered. As her soul thus rose superior to 
the weakness of her body, it seemed to assert its divine origin 
and prove its own immortality. Her weeping friends looked 
on in joyful triumph as she spoke of Christ as her own Ee- 
deemer, and committed herself entirely to Him to conduct her 
through the valley of the shadow of death, while all felt the 
truth and pertinency of the words of the officiating minister 
of Christ, pronounced over her remains in the cemetery of the 
dead : " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence- 
forth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
labors; and their works do follow them." 



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